The social science of food.

Fruit

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

In honor of Pancake Day (aka Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras...) I decided to treat myself to a Dutch Baby with silky smooth blood orange curd. A Dutch Baby is a German Pancake, but Dutch Baby sounds so much more fun, and I've got babies on the brain (less than a month till the due date!). The name is a bit confusing because the Dutch tend to make thin, crepe-like pancakes so enormous they engulf a plate and peak over the edges and a Dutch Baby is a puffed, cakey pancake. However the name came to be, the Dutch Baby is delicious. Dutch Babies bake in the oven so if you are the one who tends to man the pancake griddle while others enjoy hot pancakes, try this because the entire pancake is cooked whole and then slice into portions (you could of course bake little individual Dutch Babies in baby cast iron skillets too).

DUTCH BABY PANCAKE

4 eggs

1 Tbs vanilla sugar, or sugar with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup whole milk

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

pinch salt

4 Tbs butter, room temp

METHOD

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place your cast iron skillet into the oven to heat up. I use two 8-inch skillets for this amount of batter and this recipe serves 4 people. You could also use cake pans if you don't have a cast iron skillet.

Make sure your eggs and milk are cold. In a blender whizz eggs and sugar for a minute and then stream in cold milk. Continue to blend till frothy, add sifted flour and pinch of salt and blend for 1 minute. Make sure everything is well incorporated - the flour can stick to the sides.

If using two pans, divide butter in half. Take hot skillets out of the oven and put a portion of butter in each. It should melt quickly - swirl around the pan. Pour the batter into the skillet(s). Put in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for an additional 10 minutes. The edges should be puffed and golden brown. When it first comes out of the oven it will be puffed all over and by the time you get it to the table to serve the middle will deflate.

Serve with Blood Orange Curd, recipe follows. The heat of the pancake gently melts the curd and the end result is divine.

You can also have the Dutch Baby with any sort of pancake topping - warm maple syrup, macerated berries, and fresh lemon juice with sugar are some of my favorites. If you want to go a bit savory try warm maple syrup with bits of crispy smoked bacon.

I had lots of juicy blood oranges from Italy and decided to tweak my lemon curd recipe for blood orange curd. This method for making curd is a bit different than most citrus curd recipes - read through before making. It also should be made the day before you want to serve it so it has a chance to set up to the perfect thickness. The end result is a super rich and silky curd.

The curd looks quite pale in the picture above...in reality it is a lovely pastel pink color.

BLOOD ORANGE CURD

zest of 4 blood oranges

3/4 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

pinch salt

4 eggs, room temperature

1 sheet of gelatin**

10 oz unsalted butter, soft

METHOD

Zest blood oranges, then juice them. Put zest and juice in a pot with sugar and salt. Heat mixture on medium low. Meanwhile crack eggs into a bowl and gently whisk to mix together yolk and white. Also, bloom your sheet of gelatin in cold water.

When the blood orange juice comes to a simmer, take off the heat and pour into the eggs, while whisking. Do this to temper the eggs. Pour the entire mixture back into the pot and keep on low heat while moving the mixture with a spatula to thicken. Take care it does not curdle. Thicken until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Add gelatin and stir in - it should dissolve quickly.

Immediately strain into a food processor (use your finest mesh strainer and press through with a spatula). Turn the food processor on and drop knobs of butter until it is all incorporated. While not totally necessary I strain the mixture a second time (once the butter is added) into a clean bowl. Cover directly with plastic and chill in refrigerator overnight.

**I much prefer using gelatin sheets (Gelita brand from Germany) to powdered gelatin. If they are unavailable to you at your local store, they are available through many online speciality food shops. If you don't want to buy a whole box, you can buy 20 sheets from King Arthur Flour.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

So I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast nearly every morning for weeks, so much so that I've been buying oats by bulk. Nuts, cinnamon, dried or fresh fruit usually accompany. Since I'm eating multiple meals a day (hey, I'm eating for two!) I even had oatmeal for a pre-dinner dinner today. The oats have even made their way into my sweet indulgence. To recreate one of my favorite breakfast oatmeals in a cookie I've added walnuts, chopped prunes, and lots of cinnamon to my oat cookie. These have just enough sweetness to stop a more indulgent craving. If your not a fan of prunes, dried cherries or blueberries would work just as well.

WALNUT + PRUNE OAT COOKIE

4 1/2 oz unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup coarsely chopped prunes

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream together butter and sugars for about 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla extract, beat in till combined. Add dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in oats, prunes, and walnuts. Form into balls (makes about 2 dozen 1-inch balls) and bake for about 10 minutes. The edges should be golden brown, but don't overbake unless you prefer a crisper cookie.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

When I want to make a quick and simple dessert an apple crisp always comes to mind. Peel and slice up a few apples, toss with lemon, cinnamon, brown sugar, a smidge of flour and a sprinkle of salt. For the top - a few oats, almond flour, a bit more flour, sugar, salt, and butter to keep it crumbly and crisp, and in the oven. Done. Maybe some ice cream on top and everyone is happy. What could be even easier with a similar result? Brown Betty.

Brown Betty is the girl next door you never really think about, or talk to your friends about. You're not attracted to her at first sight, but you love it when you run into her and exchange hellos. Then one day, you hang out with her, spending some serious time and you can't believe you never noticed how amazing she really is. She doesn't require copious amounts of effort. She's perfect - never too much or over the top. You can bring her home to mom, but your friends think she's great too. Brown Betty is the dessert that is never really craved or swooned over, but when it's there you can't imagine life with her.

Brown Betty is way easier than pie and doesn't really require much of a recipe. To start, cube day-old brioche bread, or a mixture of country white bread and croissants into 1/2 inch cubes. You could also do this with fresh bread, just cut and cube a few hours before and set out to dry the bread a bit. Then, in a bowl, peel and slice tart apples. They should be sliced relatively thin - if they are too thick they won't soften enough by the time the bread on top browns. Toss apple slices with a squeeze of lemon, a generous amount of cinnamon, a bit of clove and nutmeg, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and a splash of brandy or calvados. Toss together and set aside. In a pot melt and brown butter. When the butter starts to brown and get nutty, pour most of the butter over the cubed bread and toss together. Reserve a bit of brown butter for sprinkling on top. In a buttered baking dish, layer the now brown buttered bread and/or croissant cubes with apples, starting and ending with the bread cubes. Sprinkle the remaining butter over top. You could sprinkle a bit of turbinado sugar on top as well, but it's not necessary. Bake in a 350F oven, for about 30 minutes. The apples should be soft, but not mushy, and the bread cubes on top should be a golden brown.

As a general guide I used a mixture of 6 cups of cubed white bread and croissants. I also used 6 apples, juice of 1 lemon, 1/4 cup brown sugar (add more if you like your desserts on the sweeter side), 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon, pinch each of nutmeg, clove and salt (use whatever spices you like with apples), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 2 Tablespoons of calvados (if you don't want to use alcohol fresh apple juice is fine, but it does need a bit of liquid), and 4 ounces of butter. This fit perfectly in an medium-depth 8x8 inch baking dish.

Serve warm, with or without fresh heavy cream or vanilla ice cream. The bottom layer of bread soaks up all the cinnamony apple juice that caramelizes a bit while the top is crisp and buttery. It's understated, but perfect on a cool fall day.

Monday, June 14, 2010

I had the wonderful fortune of having one of those bad-ass grandmothers. Grandma lived with my immediate family for most of my childhood. Every morning she cooked us a hot breakfast and then sat with us while we ate. Grandma (with the help of Grandpa) cultivated a vegetable garden that would put most small farms to shame. She was sweet as sugar, but at the same time tough and fearless - I once witnessed her kill a rattlesnake with a shovel. What? Yes. She wanted to make sure the snake never came back into the yard for fear that it might bite us so she beat the thing to death.

Grandma grew up on an island in South Korea, bore nine children, and was the wife of the captain of a fishing boat. She was often left alone for weeks or months at a time to raise her children (one of which was my mother) in a two room home. After my mom (the youngest girl of the lot) married my American father, my grandparents came to the States.

While life was a bit more comfortable in the States I think my grandmother remembered the times when she went without. Fruit was a huge luxury during my Grandmother's time in Korea. We often went cherry picking when cherry season came around, and my Grandmother, bless her heart, would wear pants with the deepest pockets and slip cherries in them till they were bulging.

Grandma passed over five years ago, but she is missed and remembered by my entire family. Lots of things during my day to day life remind me of her, but when cherries come into season I always think of her and cherry picking.

We never cooked with cherries growing up - just ate them fresh. But now that it's just two at home when I have the wonderful fortune of too many cherries I have to think of different ways to use them. Thanks to some advice from my twittering foodie friends I decided to go with a cherry clafoutis. I contacted my former boss and pastry chef extraordinaire, Belinda Leong, for a tasty clafoutis recipe. She's just back in San Francisco after two years of working with the best pastry chefs in the best restaurants all over Europe. She's got something in the works you lucky San Franciscans.

I baked mine in a cast iron skillet for no other reason than it was the perfect size, but it worked like a charm. I'd like to say I left the pits in the cherries because it is French tradition to do so, but in reality I've been cooking for the past two years without any kitchen gadgets (referring to the cherry pitter here), so couldn't be bothered with pitting. Worked great and prevented any bleeding of the cherries. Just warn your guests before they dive in and break a tooth.

This recipe makes one clafoutis in a deep 6-inch cast iron skillet. It's the perfect amount for four, or in our case a greedy couple. You could divide the batter amongst buttered and sugared ramekins.

CHERRY CLAFOUTIS

2 large eggs

80 grams sugar

32 grams all-purpose flour

40 grams almond flour

100 grams whole milk

100 grams heavy cream

20 whole cherries (approx.), cleaned with stems off

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350F. Heavily butter a cast iron skillet. Combine the milk + cream together in a container. Combine the flour + almond flour in a bowl. Gently whisk them together to combine and break up any clumps of flour. Whisk together eggs + sugar in a medium bowl. Once eggs + sugar are combined, whisk them into the bowl of combined flours. Slowly stream the liquid into the bowl while whisking. Pour into the buttered cast iron skillet. Evenly distribute the whole cherries. Carefully place in the oven. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until the clafoutis is set and golden brown on top. Eat immediately. Absolutely not necessary but feel free to serve with a splash of fresh cream.

There is something so intriguing to me about Scandinavia in wintertime. Everything seems to be covered in a fresh blanket of snow for as far as the eye can see. When flying in it's almost impossible to tell where water meets land as everything is untouched, frozen and dusted in snow.

In summertime, the southern parts of Scandinavia begin to thaw and the most amazing things emerge.

One would be the arctic cloudberry. It's almost as elusive as the ice queens and trolls that live in Norway. By the way, I don't believe they don't exist! Cloudberries can survive extreme arctic temperatures and in summertime ripen under the Midnight Sun. When ripe they look almost like yellow raspberries. Their flavor is hard to pin down - they definitely taste a bit like a berry, but add hints of pineapple. Like a wild mountain strawberry you can taste the "wilderness" in a cloudberry. They are hard to find and nearly impossible to cultivate. Their fruit bearing time is so short lived that apart from countries close to the arctic circle you are probably looking at experiencing cloudberries via jam.

Various places sell it online and in London you can always get a jar at the Scandinavian Kitchen. It's delicious warm over ice cream or as an addition to a cheese plate. I thought I would pair it with another Nordic staple - rye.

CLOUDBERRY RYE CRUMBLE BAR

This recipe is adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. Boyce's book does not disappoint. Each thing I try becomes my new favorite. As she suggests the recipe is versatile and any fruit spread would work. The rye and cloudberry jam is an irresistible combination. Please read through as this recipe is multi-step. This recipe makes 12 servings.

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (original calls for 1 teaspoon, but found it to be a bit too much)

3 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups cloudberry jam

Combine all the dry ingredients, including the sugars and salt. Pulse a few times in a food processor till oats are partially ground. Put in a mixing bowl and add the melted butter and combine by hand. Squeeze dough to make crumbly bits. Set aside.

Spread the jam over the shortbread crust when it comes out of the oven for the first time. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over top. Bake in oven for another 50-55 minutes or until the crumble topping gently browns.

When the pan has cooled just enough to handle run a sharp knife along the edge to loosen any cloudberry jam that may have stuck to the side of the pan. Remove the ring of the springform pan. Once cooled dust with powdered sugar and cut into 12 wedges or your desired shape.

Serve plain or with a bit of loosely whipped, unsweetened cream. If you have trouble finding cloudberry jam, any berry or stone fruit jam would be delicious with the nutty rye.